This invention relates generally to personal safety systems and methods, and more particularly, to a systems and methods for monitoring a person, determining a person is breathing abnormally, and automatically addressing the abnormal breathing by the person.
Since the neck of an infant is not yet fully developed, bone and muscle strength in the infant's neck is typically not strong enough to support the infant's head. Typically, the weight of the infant's head accounts for a much larger percentage of the over-all weight of the body compared to an adolescent or an adult. In addition, infant's L skull is relatively large and its brain is relatively small, so its cranial cavity is not very stable. Numerous incidents have been found that incorrect breathing postures by an infant can cause bone or even brain damages to the infant, and in some severe instances even death of the infant.
The aforementioned breathing danger due to an infant's incorrect breathing posture may become even more acute when a care-giver of the infant is not paying attention to the infant. While the care-giver is supposed to keep an eye on the infant constantly, it is human nature that such attention may lapse from time to time. For example, the care-giver may be asleep while the infant is awake; or the care-giver may be on the phone or multi-tasking, and thus not providing enough attention to the infant. However, even the slightest lapse of the care-giver's attention to the infant could lead to a severe consequence if the infant was engaging in incorrect breathing postures during the lapse. In some circumstances, even if the care-giver is attentively caring for the infant, he/she may still not be aware the baby is engaging in incorrect breathing posture until it is too late. Moreover, in some situations, the care-giver may “over-cuddle” or “over-shake” the infant when the infant is crying. That could also contribute to incorrect breathing by the infant because the infant needs to compensate for the sudden stress caused by the “over-cuddling” or “over-shaking”. Therefore there is a need to determine and address an incorrect breathing posture engaged in by an infant and/or notify the care-giver of such.